The present invention relates to computer network systems and in particular to management of storage in a networking environment.
The adoption of computer use in every aspect of our lives has created a great demand for storage capacity. Adequate data storage is an important component in most modern enterprises. The infrastructure technology that has developed to support the Internet has been exploited to provide a variety of network-based storage solutions. FIG. 24 shows a range of storage architectures, including simple single storage/single server systems, and fibre channel technologies such as fibre channel (FC) storage area networks (SANs) and wider area FC SANs. Though not yet realized, the natural progression is toward a fully generalized IP-based (internet protocol) storage area network (shown in the figure by the dashed lines).
Several types of storage devices are manufactured. They include RAID (redundant arrays of inexpensive disks) arrays, JBOD (just a bunch of disks) configurations which are spanning architectures that do not conform to the RAID definition, NAS (network attached storage) configurations, and so on. Accessing storage devices requires communication from the host, through the switching fabric, and through servers using any of a variety of protocols; e.g. fibre channel (FC), iSCSI (internet SCSI—Small Computer System Interface), NFS, and so on.
Given such a heterogeneous collection of intermediate components, it is not a trivial task to provision storage suitable for secured access, or with a guaranteed minimum throughput, and so on. As can be appreciated, each subsystem typically can be provided by a different hardware and software manufacturers. Thus, provisioning suitable storage access typically requires detailed knowledge of each subsystem in order to provide an appropriate access path. For example, a different user interface (“agent”) for configuring each component typically is required. This necessitates the use of one or more operators to administer each component (e.g., host), and to collectively coordinate the configuration of the myriad components to connect the user's host system to her storage media with the access characteristics that she requires.
It can be appreciated that there is a need to provide access to storage in a storage area network for users who have disparate storage needs in a storage system which subsystems have disparate administrative requirements. There is a need to facilitate the establishment and subsequent management of network paths in a storage area network based, for example, on security criteria.